Paid time off to vote: What's next? Vote or else?

The idea of mandating private companies to provide paid family leave (in addition to vacations, etc.) has apparently spawned another feel-good idea from the left. Paid time off to vote.

Why stop there? Why deprive an individual of the right to further participate in one’s government? How about paid time off to campaign, either for yourself or for a total stranger?

Should not the 424 members of the state Legislature be given paid time off as well? A lot of them are retired, but perhaps some would still be working if their private employers were paying their salaries when they were in Concord.

Yesterday’s voter turnout was unusually large for a mid-term election. But might it have been higher still if people knew they could get out of work for awhile?

While we’re at it, let’s hear it for mandated voting, too. Once that’s in force, mandating whom to vote for shouldn’t be far behind.